


Cake By The Ocean

by KrysKrossZee



Series: Quinzee's KCAWS 30 Day of Summer [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Birthday, Birthday Cake, Birthday Fluff, Cake, Day At The Beach, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, POV Male Character, POV Ron Weasley, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24520633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee
Summary: It's Harry and Neville's joint birthday party at the beach and Ron is feeling a little down in the dumps after his recent break up with Hermione. Thank Merlin for the cake, except it's not the cake that has Ron's full attention.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Ron Weasley
Series: Quinzee's KCAWS 30 Day of Summer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772041
Comments: 15
Kudos: 24





	Cake By The Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> This is definitely not a pairing I would ever have considered writing for before - I seem to be doing those a lot lately - but I was stuck for ideas for Day 1 of the Keep Calm And Write Something 30 Days of Summer Writing Challenge so I asked in Hermione's Nook for random characters, so we can thank StoriesbyNessie and Gcgraywriter for suggesting Ron and Neville.
> 
> Thanks so much to my betas SethWren, adavison, and CinnamonFreckle for helping edit!
> 
> Please let me know what you think and whether you think I should write more for this pairing! (I probably will anyway because I kinda really liked them!)

It was hot. Too hot. Ron didn't cope well with the heat as it was, and the sun always turned him into something that resembled a tomato; but he'd figured that if he said no to going to the beach with his friends, then they would start in on the idea that he didn't want to spend time with them anymore.  
It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with them; it was that he didn't want to spend time with one particular bushy haired brunette, and honestly who could blame him when she had ripped his heart out just a month before. She was here - of course she was here - and flaunting her new found 'independent woman' thing. In another life he would have been happy for her, but as it was he was just far too heartbroken for that.  
"Who died?" Neville asked as he dropped into the sand next to him. It was a strange sort of question, but it was enough to snap Ron out of his thoughts long enough to wonder if he looked that miserable.  
"Uh. Sorry," he muttered. He dropped the legs that he had been hugging to his chest while his friends had been milling around him.  
"For what..?" Ron heard Neville’s frown before he saw it. "You're not obligated to be happy all the time, you know."  
"Well, thank fuck for that." Ron said with a small chuckle. He knew he didn't need anyone's permission to be down in the dumps, but it was nice to have it all the same.  
As he glanced sideways at the other boy - well, young man now, he supposed - he saw that Neville’s eyebrow was raised. He let his gaze linger on him for a moment. He'd never noticed that little crease between Neville’s eyes before and, honestly, he found it intriguing. He found himself wondering what else about Neville he hadn't noticed before.  
Neville cleared his throat after a moment, and Ron's ears turned pink as he realised that he'd been watching him for an uncomfortably long period of time - which was any amount of time in Ron's opinion. He hated being watched, though if he told anyone that they wouldn't have believed him. Many people believed Ron to be an attention seeker after all. The jealous best friend of The Boy Who Lived, and while that might have been true once upon a time, he liked to believe that he had grown this last year.  
"You - uh - cake?" Ron stuttered out when Neville didn't appear to have anything to actually say. Fortunately food was always there for Ron; food had never and would never let him down. It also helped that it was Neville and Harry's joint birthday party so cake was on offer. They'd already blown out the candles and sung happy birthday, so now Ron didn't feel all too guilty about the prospect of helping himself to a second slice of cake.  
"Sure." Neville nodded with a smile as he kicked back, now leaning on his elbows.  
Ron watched him for just a moment longer. He couldn't help it. There was just something about him that the ginger couldn't quite put a name on. Was this what happened when you turned nineteen?  
He glanced over at Harry as he went to grab himself, and Neville, another slice of cake from the muggle box thing that Hermione had brought along. Harry was nineteen now too, but he wasn't exuding the same sort of energy that Neville was. He shook all those thoughts off as his sister's giggle ran through the air, and decided that the reason he didn't want to stare at his best friend was because Harry currently had his baby sister draped over his lap.   
He handed Neville his cake as he sat back down, and heard himself ask "Why aren't you over with the others having fun?" before he could stop himself.  
"You looked like you could use a friend." Neville said matter-of-factly as he dipped his finger into the chocolate frosting on his cake.  
Ron's breath all but caught in his throat as he watched Neville lick the frosting off. Seriously, why had he never noticed this man properly before? Neville had always been there, ever since their first train ride to Hogwarts, and yet it was as if Ron had never seen him before in his life. How had he managed to miss out on this masterpiece of a person?  
"I - thank you," he said quietly, his ears practically burning, all the way down his neck now, but he supposed he could blame that on sunburn if anyone dared to ask. Neville was right anyway. He did need a friend. Harry was, as usual, far too oblivious to realise that his best friend was in pain; Hermione was the cause of the pain so he definitely couldn't rely on her; Ginny was too close to the problem, not to mention the fact that she was his sister; and Luna… wel,l Luna remained the girl with her head in the clouds.  
"Any time." Neville said softly with a smile before he bumped Ron’s shoulder with his own.  
Ron found himself realising that he was actually happy that he had come along in that moment, which was a welcome thought considering that he had been totally dreading it, and had so far not enjoyed himself. At least he hadn't until Neville had joined him, and now, for one reason or another, he was now hoping that Neville would stay with him over here. It sounded like a fantasy when he thought it over, and if someone had told him a few weeks ago that he would be hoping for some more time with Neville Longbottom, he would have told them that they needed to lay off the firewhiskey.  
But here they were, side by side, in fact shoulder to shoulder, and Ron was actually happy, or at least he was able to forget that he was unhappy while Neville was in his presence.


End file.
